Up until this past summer - the summer of 2015 - marriage between two people of the same sex was illegal. But it did not happen without a fight. The fight for gay rights was a long and extensive experience, starting in the mid 1960's.
Being Gay was obviously frowned upon during the 60's. Not only that, but it was considered illegal.
Police violence toward the gay community was rampant. Police would go looking for a fight, because they knew the common areas where gays would hang out. But, enough was enough...
In the summer of 1969, the Gay community had had enough. There was a place down in the Village of NYC called the Stonewall Inn and it was a common place for people of the LGBT+ community to hang out with each other and feel somewhat safe.
The police knew of this place and commonly came by to harass the people of the Stonewall Inn. One day, they fought back. This fight was called the Stonewall Riot and it was the start of the Gay Rights movement that continued on for decades to come.
As previously mentioned, a police raid of the Stonewall Inn was not uncommon. Usually, people cooperated with the police. Enough was enough, though. On the night of June 28, 1969, the people of the Stonewall Inn, around 200 of them, decided not to cooperate. They resisted and caused a minor scene, so the police decided they were just going to bring everyone down to the station. But, not enough cars were there to bring everyone, so they let those who were not arrested out through the front, and the others had to wait in a single-file line. The crowd was not having it. Those who were not arrested stayed around and waited outside, eventually forming a small, heated crowd of people.
While arresting a lesbian woman, she put up a fight. She complained that her handcuffs were too tight and was essentially resisting arrest. An officer hit her over the back of the head with a club and then threw her into the back of a squad car. For the surrounding crowd, that was it.
The crowd broke, and attacked the police officers on the scene. The crowd tried to overturn the cop cars. They threw everything they had at it, from pennies to bricks. The 10 or so officers on the scene had to barricade themselves in the Stonewall Inn for their safety. The crowd still wasn't having it. They threw everything they could at the buildings. They threw beer cans and garbage cans and bricks. They tried to use an uprooted parking meter as battering ram to get into the Inn. Eventually, a larger police force showed up to rescue the 10 original officers and control the crowd of about 600 people.
By 4:00am on June 28, the crowd and the street had been cleared. There were 13 arrests and a lot of unrest in Greenwich Village.
Over the next few days, protests and riots broke out all over.
These view days came to be known as The Stonewall Riots. They started the Gay Rights movement that is still known of today,
"Stonewall Means: Fight Back!" became the chant one heard all throughout New York City. The Stonewall Inn still prides itself for being the birthplace of the Gay Rights movement. Every year they hold the NYC Pride Parade.
There was even a
movie created about the Stonewall Riots. The movie is called "Stonewall" and received a LOT of criticism because of the way the director decided to tell the story by using a white male as the main-made up-character. The movie itself left out a lot of the Trans Women and Drag Queens and people of color that started the riot in the first place. Basically, the director white washed the movie. But, for the purpose of this project, it gives a good insight of what went on during the Stonewall Riots.
Now, with the fact that Gay Marriage is legal and #LoveWins, we can thank those of the Stonewall Inn on that night in June of 1969 for starting this whole movement.
